Named after an island municipality with a population of just around 20,000, it’s easy for the uninformed to mistake Coronado Brewing Company (CBC) as a small, hometown operation. But with two locations—a production brewery and tasting room in Bay Park and restaurant in Imperial Beach—in addition to its original Coronado brewpub, and distribution in 19 states and 12 countries, CBC is anything but. Over the past 20 years (the past half-decade in particular), the company has grown by leaps and bounds, but it’s not done. Today, CBC announced plans to open a new facility as part of Imperial Beach’s upcoming Bikeway Village project.
Located at 535 Florence Street (at in the county’s southwestern-most city, Bikeway Village will consist of two 15,000-square-foot buildings. One of those buildings will house a coffee shop, bike store and other retail operations, while the other will be CBC’s. Their plan is to install a full-service restaurant and 10-barrel brewery in the immediate future, then follow that up down the road with a distillery. The restaurant will come in around 7,000-square-feet and include outdoor space that will be outfitted with seating and fire-pits.
Construction is estimated to last 12-to-18 months, but CBC will install a temporary tasting room this summer that will remain operational until the full-concept debuts the following summer. The temporary space will include outdoor seating and employ a mobile beer-trailer equipped with 20 or so taps, as well as the services of local food-trucks. Like the eventual brewpub and the other businesses comprising Bikeway Village, CBC’s interim sampling space is designed to cater to cyclists utilizing the Bayshore Bikeway as well as IB denizens.